Eagle

More backspace? Or less?

Es mi nombre. I don't see much point in using a nomme de plume for a non-fiction book.

Compare that to the compressive strength of aluminum or brass ... or zamak

Yes. If you add a short section of flex pipe between the exhaust manifold and the front exhaust downpipe, it will relieve most of the stress on the manifold and should eliminate future cracking.

Huh? Whut? Steel isn't good in compression? Why is that what the frames of skyscrapers are made of?

No. Do NOT use junkyard sockets for parking/turn signal/brake lights. They will be the same type that already went bad on your truck. There's no way to know if sockets from the junkyard will be any better than what you have. The auto parts houses have a NEW replacement socket, for some Ford model, that's a perfect fit. This is a case where you really REALLY want to go new.

Project option #3 is the one I feel most interested in doing at the moment, but it's going to be a LOT of work. I have sent out inquiries to a couple of lawyers I know to ask if such a collection already exists. If it's been done, there's no point in reinventing the wheel. But I haven't found such a collection anywhere, and I think it could be valuable. I don't have kids young enough to be in school now (my adopted daughter is 26) but, from what I hear from frieds with kids in school today, the schools aren't teaching anything close to the truth about American history. Meanwhile, the paperback version of my book has come out on Amazon. Same link now takes you to both the e-book and the paperback. And it's also available in a Nook edition on Barnes & Noble.

That's a great camera. You got a helluva deal on that. What's this about Canons and dead batteries? I've been a Canon guy since I bought a Canon FT-QL (35mm) at the PX in Vietnam back in 1968. I haven't head about this dead battery issue.

That's not that bad. Most of the good self-defense ammo (brand name JHP) was over a buck a round in .45 ACP and getting up there for 9mm even before this latest crunch. For giggles, I just received an e-mail from J&G Sales. They are offering some Russian, steel-case .380ACP in FMJ (not JHP) for a special price: $69.95 per box of fifty. Yep, that's right -- $1.40 a round for crap ammo that most people would never allow in one of their guns.

There's also Paint.net. It's been around for a long time and is supposed to be fairly capable -- but I've never tried it. https://www.getpaint.net/index.html

Yep. Just the springs. In the (very) old days, Hudsons had a Panhard rod (a.k.a. track bar) on the rear axle, but I've never seen any other brand that used one on a leaf spring rear suspension.

I notice the OP mentioned "topping it off." If that's all you did, you have a bunch of burned tranny juice still in there. I would pull the plug and drain the pan, then refill it. Drive it a bit to circulate the fluid out of the torque converter, then repeat the drain and refill. A couple of people have suggested dropping the pan. I suggest that you NOT do this. The lower half of the dip stick tube is an integral part of the pan, It's almost impossible to get the pan off without separating the lower half from the upper half, and it's virtually impossible to do that without destroying something. And I don't think the upper tube is still available, so don't even think about dropping the pan unless there's no other option.

Probably okay for street use with stock tires -- if you don't load it anywhere near capacity. Not recommended if you run big tires, wheel it, or carry heavy loads. The factory put those there for a reason ...

Get a length of stainless gutter trim off a Cherokee and (pardon the pun) trim it.

No cutting or welding required.

Yes. A 5-second crank-to-fire time in a Renix MJ or XJ would be considered fast.

This is for an MJ? The proportioning valve is above the rear axle and does not affect the front brakes. That thingie beneath the master cylinder on the MJ is a distribution block, not a proportioning valve.

If it hasn't happened to you yet, it will. First we lost Photobucket. Then Photobucket bought Tinypics and we lost them. It's like dominoes -- once one falls, the others follow. Most forums I participate on now allow members to upload photos directly to the site. That's good for going forward, but it doesn't replace all the photos that were hosted on external sites that have been lost.

MJ was Jeep's designation for the Comanche. All Comanches are MJs -- and all Cherokees are XJs. MJ and XJ were not model/trim levels. And there were no "Dodge" Comanches. After about February of 1988 Jeep vehicles came from Chrysler rather than from AMC, but they were still Jeeps -- never Dodges.

"Plans" might be too strong a word, but hopes and intentions -- yes. My problem is deciding which one to work on next. I have three books (at least) that I have long ago started laying the groundwork for: My "great American novel." It will be about a retired Army officer who plays a major role in defeating alien invaders who come to Earth with the intention of harvesting Earthlings as a food source. It will have religious/spiritual overtones -- the aliens think Earth is open season to them because they believe that God has given up on us ... The Jeep book (or books -- not sure whether to do XJ and MJ together, or separate books on each) There are a number of good books about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and some decent books about the Second Amendment. Most refer to a number of very old documents, some of which are easy to find on the Internet and some of which are not so easy to find. My project is to pull all those documents together into a single source collection.

I would call it more satin than semi-gloss.

No, I haven't finished my book on XJs and MJs. (That may happen soon, but I might stick to MJs.) This one is totally foreign to Jeeps -- it's about ways for people who can't afford to spend a lot to make their lives more secure. I got some ideas after my daughter was mugged a couple of times while away at college, and I started researching things to try to teach here about situational awareness. I think the advice all fell on deaf ears, so I put it into a book. It just came out on Amazon as an e-book. Paperback version hopefully soon to follow. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TT85DWL/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+Frugal+Yankee's+Guide+to+Personal+Security&qid=1611386227&sr=8-1

I disagree. Having owned (and still own) and driven XJs and MJs since 1988, despite the 2000 side view mirrors being slightly larger I don't notice any functional difference between the old mirrors and the new mirrors.

Okay, by going that route, you have kept it a closed system. That means you should only fill that new tank halfway -- you have to leave air space for the coolant to expand when it gets hot. If you were to install a catch bottle, you would be converting to an open system and you could fill the new tank right to the top.

Nice job. You really NEED to either install a catch bottle or cap the fitting on the filler neck. If you don't do one or the other, you're going to be spitting hot coolant onto your starter solenoid.